Month: November 2022

Now, To Develop The Second Novel In This Projected Six Novel Project

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I thought for a split second that I was going to cut out two novels from this projected six novel project, but it occured to me nearly instantly that there was a way to save the books. The next two books in the first trilogy, which is more like Mare of Easttown than Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series, continues the themes in the first book.

The first three novels in this six novel project is a lot more like Mare of Easttown than Stieg Larsson’s “Millennium” trilogy.

The next book I’m going to work on is about an abducted baby. In fact, I may even reference that in the title of the novel. Maybe. Everything is very fluid at the moment. All I know is I’m looking forward to using the characters I’ve come up with in two new stories. It will ultimately be five new stories, once this project is done.

What’s more, we’re going to see these same set of characters change over the course of 25 years.

Of course, I need to hurry up, otherwise, I’m going to drop dead before I finish the project. I would like to work on some other novels — and screenplays? — as well. I say this, of course, just as other people my age are checking their watches and thinking of retirement.

I’ve always been a late bloomer. That’s kind of my curse. But I’ve got a lot of real world experiences to draw upon now with these six novels that I wouldn’t have had if I was a normal person and started my novelist journey when I was just out of college.

But I’m not normal. I’m fucked up weirdo who has no idea what he’s doing with this life except he loves to tell stories. And it just has happened later in my life that I feel like I have a hang of how to tell a novel-length story. I can’t help how old I am.

Age, like race or sex, is something immutable (for the most part.) Age is like death and taxes in that respect. But I can tell a great story and so, lulz, all systems go. Let’s rock.

I May Cut Two Novels Out Of This Six Novel Project

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Update: Nevermind, for the time being I’m back to six novels. Things are still up in the air, but I do this all the time (at times) vacillate about how many novels are in this project.

While I still really love all six novels in this project I’ve been working on, two of the novels may, now that I understand the first novel better, be moot. Or, simply, not as needed.

While they’re really interesting, I am beginning to believe that they’re a bit redundant, given what goes on in the first novel. This happens to me all the time — the shape and scope of the novel ebbs and flows as events warrent, sometimes rather radically.

So, what will happen is the first novel will recount events from 25 years ago, then we leap forward 18 years, then leap forward seven years. Another reason for doing this is the ever-present looming age thing. I’m no sure that I want to spend a lot of my time on two novels that just aren’t as action-packed as maybe the other novels are as I slowly grow even more gray.

I’m not sure yet, though. But usually the biggest decisions I make with this project happen rather easily. And, yet…we’ll see I guess.

I’ve Built Out The Infrastructure of A Pretty Good First Pop Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I am getting ever closer to wrapping up the first draft of this novel I’ve been working on in various ways for several years now. I’m quite pleased. If nothing else, I have the infrastructure of a pop novel built out. The question is, of course, if I can imbue the second draft with enough spunk that Beta Readers will actually finish the whole thing without too much prompting.

It’s still tough for me to consume anyone else’s media. I’m so critical of my own writing that when I turn that brutal criticism on other people’s work I just can’t bear to consume it.

It’s become a real problem, especially since I need to read other people’s work in my genre if nothing else so I can get a better sense of how to serve my intended audience.

But, I definitely feel as though I’ve finally reached a point in this process that I’ve been struggling to attain for years now. I’m going to soon enter the stage of all of this where I can’t be delusional anymore. I’m going to have to be a lot more realistic about how to address issues like length and marketability.

At the moment, there’s a chance that I’m going to blow past the 100,000 word sweetspot by as much as 40,000 words. But this is just the first draft. Even though I’m going just follow the general outline I have for the first draft when the writing the second draft, there is still a lot tinkering to be done.

I’m still — at the moment — on track to start querying in fall 2023. Only time will tell, I suppose, however. A lot could change — both good and bad — between now and then.

Of The Taylor Swift Ticketmaster Debacle & The Corrosive Nature Of Negative Polarization

by Shelt Garner
@sheletgarner

Some time ago, I had a intense conversation with my Traditionalist relative about who fucked up the live concert ticketing marketplace was. My relative fucking hates any form of regulation and sometimes I think he would like to outlaw stop signs just to “own the libs.”

I TRIED to prove a point with him — all his complaints about how fucked up the ticketing process was could probably be solved with government regulation.

But he would have none of it. The siren call of negative polarization was just too much. Even though I find myself succumbing to negative polarization a lot these days, I fucking hate it. I hate it because it’s a sign that the politics of our once stable democratic republic are all but dead.

I say this because imagine this scenario — instead of embracing fascism, Traditionalists were willing to join forces with people they despise like AOC just long enough to weather the storm of ascendant MAGA autocracy.

But that is just not to be.

We’re careening towards a very, very dark future. We’re past the Event Horizon for autocracy, civil war or military junta. Now, let me be clear — I’m always, always wrong. And what will probably happen is initially, once a fucking Republican fascist becomes POTUS, it will seem like nothing will chance.

And THEN, things will gradually change in ways large and small and about 1 million wealthy liberals will leave the country, never to be seen again. That, at least, seems to be our immutable fate at the moment. But something unexpected might step in to at least punt the problem down the road at least one more presidential election cycle.

But the point is — not even a bunch of Swifties being angry can overcome the corrosive nature of negative polarization. There is an extensive permission structure for Traditionalists to vote fascist rather than join forces with the center-Left and, as such, we’re fucked.

The Fall of The House Of Trump?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Is it possible that as it becomes clear that Ron DeSantis is the only way that Republicans can win the White House 2024…that NOW Trump will face accountability? Will, magically, the wheels of justice begin to turn faster and suddenly throughout 2023 Trump might actually be indicted a few times?

Maybe.

But there are a few problems with this.

One is obvious — any criminal accountability for Trump will turn him into a martyr and the base of the Republican Party will cling to him even fucking tighter. The other is not as obvious, but just as certain — barring something really unexpected, rather than forcing Trump into political retirement, DeSantis winning the nomination would just cause Trump to jump to the Patriot Party.

And, remember, one of the reasons why I think we might have a civil war starting in 2024 – 2025 is Republicans, probably using the newly-validated “Independent Legislature” concept will brazenly steal the the 2024 election. To the point that the country buckles into Turner Diaries-like chaos. (I’ve never read that book, but it’s a shorthand for my worst nightmares about the future of America even though it’s politics are at the far end of the exact opposite of the political spectrum from mine.)

Anyway — the point is, Trump isn’t going anywhere.

He is either going to be the nominee in 2024, or he’ll destroy the Republican Party in the process. And, really, my only question about Trump is — was his historical purpose to be a transitional figure in America’s descent into autocracy, or is he meant to cause a civil war?

Regardless, we’ve officially entered a very, very bumpy time in American history. We either slide into autocracy, have a civil war or maybe have a military junta of some sort. But the America that we have known since the end of the First American Civil War is running on fumes into a dark, dark future. Anything can and will happen and the sooner you start to game out what you’re going to do when the so-called “Fourth Turning” happens, the better.

The Receding Delusional Phase of This Projected Six Novel Project

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

So, I aim to wrap up this solid first draft of a novel I’ve been working on the last few months at some point in early December. Then I’m going to give myself a month to chill out. Then, I’m going to turn around and re-write the whole thing. That, at least in the goal.

I’ve learned that it’s actually easier to re-write something that to edit it. At least, in the context of what I’m doing. I’m going to do a lot of tinkering with the text of the second draft before I enter it into the Beta Reader process, of course.

But what’s at the forefront of my mind at the moment is how I get a real literary agent with a career and money to take my little dream seriously. I’m older than most people in my situation. Any due diligence they do on me would only lead to them believing I’m some sort of drunk Internet crank. So, my fear is, no matter how good the actual copy of the novel is, those things will be what any literary agent is more interested in when the time comes.

And, yet, that was kind of the whole point of this process from the beginning — I wanted go through the whole thing, to see how far I might get before it became clear that it just wasn’t going to work out. But, surprise, I’ve come up with at least the framework of a really, really good novel that would be the cornerstone of a series of novels that would be opened ended and potentially establish a new American (POC) Lisbeth Salander-type action-adventure heroine on the scene.

That’s the dream, at least.

But I have A LOT of work to get to that point — I really need to start reading more, no matter how difficult it may be for me at this point because my personal metrics are so strict.

It’s going to be interesting what happens with this novel in 2023. If I’m EXTREMELY luck, then I might sell the novel by the end of the year, or early in 2024. If that happened, then, of course, I’d have to wait A YEAR for post-production and by that point the country could be either an autocracy or have collapsed into civil war.

Oh boy.

Dear FBI: I Hate Violence

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

“You’re a delusional jerk with a good heart.”
— (late) Annie Shapiro about me.

I really hate violence. Hell, I struggle with dealing with just simple conflict, much less violence. But I know that at times I kind of get worked up — especially about fat fuck Mike Pompeo — and I also know that apparently everyone is on edge and on a hair trigger about people even seeming to be advocating any sort of harm.

JESUS CHRIST

Just the idea that anyone would think I was some sort of deranged, armed lunatic really, really bothers me. I have very strong opinions, yes, and can get drunk and worked out about this or that issue but I’m a man of peace, a man of ideas.

I can come across as something of a drunk kook, but that’s it. I’m very laid back and, most importantly, I’m not quiet and I don’t keep to myself. I’m 100% extroverted and, as such, whatever happens to be on my mind, you’re probably going to learn about it one way or another.

So, FBI, you can safely ignore me, no matter how much I may rant about how I think Mike Pompeo is a fat fuck and would-be autocrat. I swear. I’m totally, totally harmless!

The Great ‘Gay Scare’ of 2022

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I only talk about this in the context of how America is becoming two nations, one Red, one Blue. Otherwise, I’m pretty indifferent. People should be able to live their lives as they wish (within reason) — just be left alone, as my Traditionalist relatives might say — and it’s both dumb and alarming that any of this is happening in the first place.

But let’s talk about what’s going on in the context of how it seems the sides are beginning to harden between Red and Blue. I have to admit that there is a certain orthodoxy that exists on the Left about the LGBTQ+ community and if you don’t adhere to it, there’s hell to pay: witness Dave Chappelle.

The reason why Reds sense blood in the water politically and culturally about this issue is it’s easy to paint Blues as “groomers” given that part of the orthodoxy around LGBTQ+ rights can come across as a bit complex and ridged, to to mention a little extreme. In fact, one of my complaints about the “woke” Left is they’re so busy debating how many genders can dance on the head of a pin that they are totally oblivious to the very real rise of fascism in the United States.

So instead of girding our political loins for a massive clusterfuck in late 2024, early 2025, Blues are pointing fingers — trying to “cancel” — anyone who doesn’t adhere to a very strict, sometimes arcane and mysterious, orthodoxy about LGBTQ+ rights.

Anyway, the whole thing is a disaster for both sides for various reasons. But the chief reason is — we’re past the Event Horizon for autocracy, civil war, or military junta in late 2024, early 2025. Buckle up, no matter what gender you are or what pronoun you use.

Why Conspiracy Theories Are Dumb

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I saw recently where it’s actually KNOWN that Tik-Tok is tracking the location of specific, individual users of the service….and it was a lulz. And that’s the thing about the vast majority of conspiracies — we actually know about them. Or, put another way, typically, “vast conspiracies” inevitably get discovered and accepted and then we move on.

So, I suppose what’s really going on with crazy conspiracy theory people is they believe there are sooper secret conspiracies that would rock the world, change the world if they were discovered. This is kind of a sick sad world kind of thing to believe because there are literally only one or two conspiracies that I can believe would actually change anything if they were proven to be real.

One is — if we learned that a combination of the mob, the CIA and Castro murdered JFK, that would probably cause serious real-world implications even today. The other is, I don’t know, the US government is hiding space aliens at Area 51.

That’s all I got. If you can’t prove those two conspiracies, I just don’t have much hope for you. Though, I would add to the two above the vague notion that Big Tech has the ability to read our minds. If you could PROVE that Tik-Tok was reading my mind against my will, then, yeah, that type of “mind rape” might cause a war between China and the US.

But, in general, when it comes to conspiracies, either we already know about them and don’t care, they’re out of date and meaningless or whatever was going on at one point isn’t going on anymore and we’ll never, ever learn the truth.

‘Fourth Turning’ Flashpoint: New York City

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I don’t believe in the concept of the “Fourth Turning” — it’s just astrology for dudes. But is an effective shorthand for the potential clusterfuck we face in late 2024, early 2025.

One place to keep an eye around that timeframe is New York City. I say this because not only is a lot of Right wing media based out of NYC, but the flagship Trump Tower is there, too. So if the country begins to collapse because of the pressures of the 2024 presidential cycle, then I could see the possibility of there being a popular revolt in NYC directed at Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post and Trump Tower.

This sounds very, very fantastical at the moment, but, as they say, one goes bankrupt gradually, then all at once, so…it’s at least possible? As I keep saying, I still don’t think there’s going to be a National Divorce or Second American Civil War. There may be rolling political violence like Bárbara F. Walter keeps writing about, but not the full-scale civil war that I’m nervous about.

Blues just don’t have it in them.

And, yet, if it becomes clear that either the 2024 election is going to be brazenly stolen or the new, incoming MAGA POTUS is going to be really, really radical in their policies…it’s possible, just possible that there might be a massive groundswell for a National Divorce in Blue states — with California and New York City being the two places where the bolts begin to pop off of the country in a rather conspicuous manner.

I don’t know, we don’t quite know the final elements of what will happen in 2024 — especially like what SCOTUS will rule on the “Independant Legislature” concept — so….lulz? I’m always, always wrong and any “Fourth Turning” (giggle) is about 18 months from now. But I would suggest you think seriously about getting the fuck out of the United States if you have the means.